Lady Marauders clip Falcons, 3-1

MINFORD, Ohio — The game was added late, but the Meigs High School softball squad did all of its damage early against the host Minford Falcons on Monday.

That’s because the Marauders scored once in the opening inning and twice more in the third, en route to fending off the Falcons 3-1 in a non-league tilt.

With the win, Meigs moved to 19-5, as the Maroon and Gold was playing in its first game in exactly one week.

In a well-played pitcher’s duel, both teams had four hits, but the Marauders managed to break a 1-1 tie with two runs in the top of the third.

The 3-1 score held up the rest of the way, as Alliyah Pullins pitched the opening five innings for Meigs and earned the win.

She walked two and struck out two, giving way to Maddison Woodyard in the final two stanzas, who gained the save.

Woodyard also struck out two, as Pullins retired the Falcons 1-2-3 in the second and fourth frames, followed by Woodyard doing the same in the fifth and last.

In the remaining three innings, five Falcons approached the plate each time, but Minford stranded a runner at third in the first, left the bases loaded in the third, and stranded two runners aboard in the sixth.

Meigs scored in the initial at-bat when Taylor Swartz reached on a fielder’s choice, then scored two batters later on a Pullins RBI-groundout.

Minford managed its run in the bottom of the first, before the Marauders made it 3-1.

Once again, Swartz reached on a fielder’s choice, then scored on an RBI-single by Sadie Fox.

Fox eventually scored as Pullins plated a double.

Devyn Oliver added the other two hits — singles in the first and fourth frames.

Peyton Rowe walked in the third, as Swartz drew a walk in the fifth.

Aside from the first and third, only three Marauders saw the plate in the second, fourth and sixth stanzas — and only four batters in the fifth and seventh.

The Marauders, the top-seeded club in the Division II sectional tournament, play host to ninth-seeded Marietta in a semifinal today (Wednesday, May 11).